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This is the last of our lessons from locusts as they are described in Joel 2.7, 8:

• Like warriors they charge. Are we on offense, actively trying to make a difference?
• Like soldiers they scale the wall. Are we undeterred by obstacles?
• They march each on his way; they do not swerve from their paths.Does each of us know our job and do it? Can each of us operate within our own calling?
• They do not jostle one another; each marches in his path. Are we content to let others pursue their calling?
  
• They burst through the weapons and are not halted. Do we expect to be effective?

Expect to be effective. The locusts “burst through the weapons and are not halted.” Jesus promised that “the gates of hell will not prevail against the church.” (See Ewellogy, February 15.) Winston Churchill said, “It is no use saying ‘we are doing our best.’ You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary.”

Expecting to be effective is a little bit counter to the oft-quoted phrase in Christian circles, “We are not called to be successful but faithful.” There is certainly truth in that, too, and often “success” is beyond our control. However, expecting to be effective might put us into a mindset of determining what effectiveness would look like and then assessing our activities, making adjustments when necessary. Again, often in Christian circles, we are content to keep running the same plays whether they are effective or not.

The Apostle Paul measured his effectiveness in the stability of his converts: For now we live if you stand fast in the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 3.8, NKJV)

Nehemiah’s effectiveness was a completed wall. Habitat for Humanity points to millions of completed houses. International Justice Mission liberates people from sexual exploitation. An organization that helps non-profits measure effectiveness advocates “turn-the-curve” thinking. For example, if we can’t eliminate, say, teenage pregnancies, can we at least turn the curve?

We pray for you all the time—pray that our God will make you fit for what he’s called you to be, pray that he’ll fill your good ideas and acts of faith with his own energy so that it all amounts to something. (2 Thessalonians 1.11, MSG

The world is unprincipled. It’s dog-eat-dog out there! The world doesn’t fight fair. But we don’t live or fight our battles that way—never have and never will. The tools of our trade aren’t for marketing or manipulation, but they are for demolishing that entire massively corrupt culture. We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ. Our tools are ready at hand for clearing the ground of every obstruction and building lives of obedience into maturity. (2 Corinthians 10.3 – 6, MSG)

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We’re exploring lessons from locusts as they are described in Joel 2.7, 8:

• Like warriors they charge. Are we on offense, actively trying to make a difference?
• Like soldiers they scale the wall. Are we undeterred by obstacles?
• They march each on his way; they do not swerve from their paths.Does each of us know our job and do it? Can each of us operate within our own calling?
• They do not jostle one another; each marches in his path. Are we content to let others pursue their calling?
  
• They burst through the weapons and are not halted. Do we expect to be effective?

Today I want to explore lessons 3 and 4: they do not swerve from their paths and they do not jostle one another. This one is simple: stay in your lane!

Each knows his job and does it. (Joel 2.8, MSG)

Practically speaking, when we initiate an effort to solve a problem like, say, human trafficking or teen suicide, not everyone that we invite will join us. But that’s OK. God is in charge, and he is free (of course!) to direct his servants where He wants them. Even within a specialized, disciple-making organization like The Navigators, some of us work in churches; others, with the military or on the college campus; some are moving into inner-city neighborhoods. 

And that brings us to the other half of today’s locust lesson: don’t interfere with the other person’s calling! “They do not jostle one another.” Often, when God calls us to specific action, we are so excited about it (rightly so) that we want everyone on board with us (not necessarily a good thing). 

A few years ago, an early-morning men’s bible study I was leading in a downtown church was attended by men from the in-residence program of the nearby rescue mission. These men added a much-needed and sometimes colorful dimension to our table discussions! The point here is that there are many organizations in that city serving the poor: the Rescue Mission was one. There was a soup kitchen run by another church, and all the churches cooperated to create an organization to meet day-to-day needs. My job was to help train the men spiritually—something that is very important— but it would have been silly for any of us to criticize another ministry just because they weren’t doing what we were doing. 

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. (1 Corinthians 12.4 – 6, ESV)

So tend to your knitting. You’ve got your hands full just taking care of your own life before God. (Romans 14.12, MSG)

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We’re exploring lessons from locusts as they are described in Joel 2.7, 8:

• Like warriors they charge. Are we on offense, actively trying to make a difference?
• Like soldiers they scale the wall. Are we undeterred by obstacles?
• They march each on his way; they do not swerve from their paths.Does each of us know our job and do it? Can each of us operate within our own calling?
• They do not jostle one another; each marches in his path. Are we content to let others pursue their calling?
  
• They burst through the weapons and are not halted. Do we expect to be effective?

Today, let’s look at Like soldiers they scale the wall: are we undeterred by obstacles?

Whenever we attempt something significant, rest assured, there will be opposition. Nehemiah faced it in chapter 4 after the people got off to a good start building the wall in chapter 3. The Israelites gave up in the face of perceived insurmountable opposition in Numbers 13.

Then they said: “We went to the land where you sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. Nevertheless the people who dwell in the land are strong; the cities are fortified and very large; moreover, we saw the descendants of Anak there… (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.” (Numbers 13.27 – 33, NKJV)

When we are engaging in the specific project God has called us to, how shall we respond to the inevitable opposition? Nehemiah responded with prayer and persistence (see Nehemiah 4). The Israelites in Numbers 13 succumbed to a spirit of fear. But…

God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of self-discipline. (2 Timothy 1.7)

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Yesterday I wrote about learning lessons from locusts as they are described in Joel 2.7, 8:

• Like warriors they charge. Are we on offense, actively trying to make a difference?
• Like soldiers they scale the wall. Are we undeterred by obstacles?
• They march each on his way; they do not swerve from their paths. Does each of us know our job and do it? Can each of us operate within our own calling?
• They do not jostle one another; each marches in his path. Are we content to let others pursue their calling?
  
• They burst through the weapons and are not halted. Do we expect to be effective?

Today, let’s look at the first one: “like warriors they charge,” which I applied as: are we on offense, trying to make a difference?

I believe that the picture painted in Matthew 16.18 is one of the most misunderstood in scripture:

And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Once when leading a Bible study, I asked the men, “What do you see when you read that verse?” One man said, “I see the church as a strong fortress being assaulted by hell, but hell is not successful in destroying the church.” This is a typical understanding, but it’s not what the verse says. It doesn’t say that hell will not prevail against the gates of the church. It says that the gates of hell will not prevail against the church! Who is on offense? The church is! God’s people are to be storming the gates of hell!

When Nehemiah heard that Jerusalem was in bad shape, he wept and mourned in chapter 1, but in chapters 2 through 6, he led the effort to rebuild the wall.

When Millard and Linda Fuller observed a lack of decent and affordable housing, they founded Habitat for Humanity, which, since its founding in 1976, has, according to their website, “…helped more than 22 million people build or improve the place they call home.”

When David Wilkerson, a white guy pastoring a small church in western Pennsylvania saw a news article about New York City gang members, he moved to New York and started a ministry to NYC street kids, resulting in the conversion of Nicky Cruz, a Puerto Rican gang member who went on to become a Christian evangelist. Their stories are told in the book and movie The Cross and the Switchblade.

What projects would God have us take on or join? Where would God have us make a difference?

Then the LORD turned to [Gideon] and said, “Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?” (Judges 6.14, NKJV)

…I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me. (Acts 26.18, ESV)

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I first shared these lessons publicly in Fort Morgan, a small town in northeast Colorado, and I almost didn’t do it. Less than a week before I was to speak, I said to myself, “I can’t speak positively about locusts in a farming community!” And that day I read Proverbs 30.24 – 28:

²⁴  Four things on earth are small, but they are exceedingly wise: 

• ²⁵  the ants are a people not strong, yet they provide their food in the summer;
  
• ²⁶  the rock badgers are a people not mighty, yet they make their homes in the cliffs;
  
• ²⁷  the locusts have no king, yet all of them march in rank;
  
• ²⁸  the lizard you can take in your hands, yet it is in kings’ palaces.
  

If scripture can use locusts positively, then I can too!

Here’s the lesson: how would you like to be part of a military unit characterized this way:

The invaders charge. They climb barricades. Nothing stops them. Each soldier does what he’s told, so disciplined, so determined. They don’t get in each other’s way. Each one knows his job and does it. Undaunted and fearless, unswerving, unstoppable. (Joel 2.7, 8, MSG)

Yes, he’s talking about locusts! Here’s a standard translation with some applications:

• Like warriors they charge. Are we on offense, actively trying to make a difference?
• Like soldiers they scale the wall. Are we undeterred by obstacles?
• They march each on his way; they do not swerve from their paths. Does each of us know our job and do it? Can each of us operate within our own calling?
• They do not jostle one another; each marches in his path. Are we content to let others pursue their calling?
  
• They burst through the weapons and are not halted. Do we expect to be effective?

I’ll write more about these characteristics in the coming days, but in the meantime, can we be watching for life lessons in unexpected places?

Go to the ant, …Observe her ways and be wise. (Proverbs 6.6)

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Yesterday, I wrote about trusting God for step-by-step directions. Here’s another kind of trust: do I trust enough to stay with the process?

Here’s a simple example: we all know that losing weight in general requires some combination of eating less and exercising more. (For those looking for another, faster way, I’m sorry!)

The challenge is that often we get off to a good start, but we don’t stay with it long enough. We get discouraged when our weight goes up one day when we expected it to go down. Here is my actual chart from a couple years ago, showing daily weights and a drop of 8 pounds over 7 weeks. Note the leveling off and even increases. But the overall trend is downward.

Eating less and exercising more works…if we stay with it! Change takes time, but change does occur over time.

The same is true in the spiritual life. Growth and transformation occur, but they are not instant. We put some spiritual disciplines in place like daily time with God, scripture memory, and accountability with one or more friends or mentors. Then we stay with it…even when we miss a day’s time with God or experience “the worst day ever” after having time with God or when we lose our temper…again(!). We trust the process.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, … (Romans 12.2, ESV)

And he said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how. The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.” (Mark 4.26 – 28, ESV)

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What does it mean to trust? At its most basic level, trust leads to action. It does me no good to say, “I trust that the chair will hold me,” while I refuse to sit on it.

Here’s an exercise: do you trust your GPS when you can’t back it up with a map?

I’m content with turn by turn directions. Years ago, when you could get a “Trip-Tic” from AAA, I loved them. Every page had a short section of our road trip with clear directions marked. Not June. She likes a large map so she can see the big picture.

On a recent road trip, we needed to get from Dayton, Tennessee, to our son’s home in Cumming, Georgia (north of Atlanta). There is an interstate way, and a “direct way,” that’s supposed to be quicker.

Whether or not it was quicker is debatable, but it surely wasn’t easier! And to complicate matters, June couldn’t find any of the roads we were using on the paper map that we had with us. Ultimately, we just had to trust that the map program “lady” knew what she was doing.

She got us there, and we survived the experience. And we sure had to apply Proverbs 3.5, 6!

Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge And He shall direct your paths. (NKJV)

Upon reflection, isn’t it true that following God’s direction is a bit more like GPS’ turn-by-turn directions than a map where you see everything at once?

And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it…” (Isaiah 30.21, ESV)

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Faced with difficult relational situations, June and I try practice holy indifference, as I wrote earlier. Practically, there is no point in being upset about something we can do nothing about, such as how someone else feels about us. So we choose not to obsess over it.

But in one particular situation, we believe God has given us a promise:

The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.” (Exodus 14.14, NIV)

Stay tuned! I’ll keep you posted on what God does.

On a recent road trip we found ourselves having dinner at Cracker Barrel on two occasions. I like to study organizational systems, and Cracker Barrel obviously has a lot of systems in place, among them, how to train and recognize their servers.

The stars on servers’ aprons indicate how long they’ve been there and responsibility levels they have attained from one star to four stars. Interestingly, we were served once by a one-star server (relatively new) and once by a four-star veteran. The service was identical, indicating an effective training system.

And what is that system? It includes on-the-job training with close observation. I watched a few tables away as two servers took the order. One was new, and the other was the trainer, who did no talking but who carefully wrote down the order herself, I suppose to check her protege’s work before they put the order in.

Two things impressed me about that process: one, the trainer was a two-star, not a four-star. That is, they let their servers train early in the process. Second, the new guy’s apron wasn’t plain with no stars, it had a rising star on it. I like that. They expect the trainees to earn their first star and progress from there.

All of it reminds me of 2 Timothy 2.1 – 2: You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others. There are no permanent students; all are expected to become teachers.

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We have started reading a very important book, just released: Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport. The book starts by comparing the purveyors of Internet content to tobacco companies who finally admitted they had been working to make cigarettes even more addictive. The programmers at FaceBook and other companies are doing the same thing: figuring out how to keep us clicking and staying on their sites.

The book recommends the following criteria for using any particular app:

1. Does it contribute to a deeply felt need?
2. If yes, is it the best way to meet that need?
3. How exactly will I use it to meet that need?

For example, if I have a deeply felt need to stay connected to my adult children, I might need to be on FaceBook for that purpose. Criterion 3, however, requires that I determine how and when I will use Facebook so that I don’t end up spending hours instead of minutes online.

The book also has a decluttering chapter that reminds me of Marie Kondo’s house decluttering strategy.

I’ll be writing more on this later, but for now, consider (as my wife, June, reminded me) that when we declutter our houses and declutter our minds, we have more space to listen to God.

Be still, and know that I am God. (Psalm 46.10)

“I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but I will not be mastered by anything. (1 Corinthians 6.12, NIV)

(By the way, I don’t make any money promoting others’ books!)